Green Tomatoes

My favorite way to serve these goes as follows:
Cut up green tomatoes, put in a container that you can put a slightly smaller container in. Pour enough salt to float in the Dead Sea and mix. Put top dish on (that Tupperware meat marinater really works perfectly) and out something HEAVY on top--

Check often, the goal is to get the water out! You will have to dump water off or have a sea of seawater alk over! In 24 hours you squeeze them dry and now put them back in your "press" this time with red wine vinegar. In another 24 hours squeeze this dry too and then take your jars, line with a layer of tomatoes, chopped garlic pieces and oregano, and olive oil. Fill it with layers this way. Refrigerate at least 10 days. Great on sandwiches and pizza! (let some get room temp)

The Healthcare Nightmare

I think insurance is basically big business. We pay insurance so the other person can get covered, pretty much.  Think about it.  I can pay $200+ a month, go to the doctor and pay a $20 co-pay for that service.  Now.  If I'm NOT sick, I still pay the $200+ per month.  If I have to go to the doctor, I pay the $20 co-pay....gee, look at what I have saved.  On the other hand, without insurance I am called a "self pay."  I go to the doctor and pay a discounted rate (because the doctor actually has a heart) of $57 for the office visit, if it is just a mere visit.  Minus the $200+ to the insurance company.

I know what you are thinking.  What about the extras?  I understand, big time.  Last year I got sick.  I had to have tons of lab tests (which I am still paying for), hospitalization in 4 different hospitals because I was a walking time bomb and didn't know it, was ill and didn't care if I lived or died.  Because I have no health insurance, I had to apply to every doctor's office, every hospital and healthcare facility, for aid.  Aid ranged from 35% to 88% given by these institutions.  Yes, it was more than what I would have paid if I had had health insurance.   But wouldn't it be better for people to have this than have to pay thousands of dollars every year to a large company who not only pockets your money, but dictates the options available to you ("oh, we won't pay for this because you didn't do that first") thereby killing you slowly while still pocketing your money????  I will be honest with you, I would rather do what I'm doing NOW than pay out those dollars to undeserving companies.  I did get restored to health, yes, I had to pay more, but it wasn't a government handout either.

1000 islands

While there are not 1000 of them, there's a lot. I don't remember the statistics. I do know it is one of the most peaceful places to be. Watch the river, barges, boats and birds. Cranes, gulls and a blue heron decorate the River. The almost eternal breeze that fills you and keeps the sun from feeling too hot.

About 3:30/4 am the cold came down like a shade. Of course I was awake, these cabins are sparse and the mattresses it is doubtful have been changed since they were built.

August Color?

The first I've seen besides the sumac!

Time Traveler

I hadn't been to the library since spring. Not that it was out of my way (since it's a block and a half away), I can't really give you a reason.  But that aside, I went to the library yesterday and got out 3 books.  Lately I have been interested in Numerology (amazing, the numbers don't lie???).  The book chosen (from the "card catalog" now the computer--sigh--I used to love to run my fingers over the index cards in the card catalog, see the ancient lettering from the old typewriters...(I see another story in this).  Back to the story at hand..."The Life You Were Born to Live" by Dan Millman was the book indicated by the librarian. Now I am an avid reader, but a book has to really grab me within the first two pages.  How's this? "The paths of life hold adventure and danger, pleasure and difficulty.  Our own path may seem clear and direct for a time, then turn sharply in a surprising direction.  At certain points on our journey, the road forks and we make choices that influence the rest of our life; we may choose...each path has its own challenges, each challenge contains a lesson, each lesson leads toward the summit of the mountain we were born to climb...we cannot fall 'off the path." It may twist or curve but it will eventually lead us upward...this metaphor...allows us to reconcile an ancient paradox about whether we truly have free will or whether our life is somehow predestined.  ..we always have the power of choice, discipline, responsibility, and commitment. No life path is harder or easier, better or worse, than any other, except to the degreee we make it so....we often teach what we need most to learn."  Anyway, I'm having fun and can't wait to read more.
The second book chosen was by Sylvia Browne, Past Lives, Future Healing.  What a fun read!  Sylvia gets right down to it sharing stories.  Again, I am underlining, if I can't find interest within the first two pages, it's a cooked goose.  I pulled it into bed with me just to wander through and had read 30 pages before choosing to turn off the light (no, it did NOT put me to sleep!).  I am looking forward to seeing what she has to say.
The third book is by Deepak Chopra, "Life After Death." (I think so, it's upstairs and I'm not running back up those steep stairs to find out right now...) I do find his books very interesting and inspiring.
More to follow I'm sure.
Follow the numbers....
Oh!  I almost forgot!  The reason behind the title!  If you are an avid reader, you can do anything, you can go anywhere, past the restraints of time and space.  You can become king, queen, lady in waiting (suggestive or otherwise lest he be off with your head), warrior, climb Everest, or enjoy the field of summer (in the dead of winter).  You can become a techno-guru of mechanics or computers.  Your machine?  Just step into your spaceship:  the library, or perhaps your favorite bookstore.  You can find it online, I'm sure, but it's much easier to enter the continuum in the spaceship.  The quiet hush of books.

The Summer of 2012

Typing this my mind goes back to that book "Summer of '42."  No, it's not the summer of 42, nothing like that at all!

"Toto" and I made it to Kansas.  It was a wonderful trip.  We stopped and visited cousin Roseann in Cincinnati, and Ginger too (the puppy).  Ginger wasn't sure about Dante, and he wasn't sure what it meant to be in a fenced in yard (no, you don't need a leash, go run and be happy).  Rosie and I enjoyed a lovely light meal and then went downtown to visit an older hotel and take photos.

The next morning Mr. Dante was right and ready to hit the dusty trail once more...

He was very excited to head west.  Alert for most of the cities, especially around the tricky arteries of St. Louis  

Exhausted from the nerve wracking driving, not to mention the HEAT, it was easy to just crash!

We did make it to Stacy and Aaron's about 7:30 p.m.  Which is pretty good, we'd left at 8:30 a.m.!  Enjoyed the fun and activities of Kansas City's first Friday night and ended up at an Irish pub for a wonderful meal of fish and chips (no doubt with that American twist).  The next day we visited Union Station

and the Titanic Exhibit.  Each visitor received a boarding pass with the name of a passenger and followed the journey to the end.  My passenger was Mrs. Isidor Straus (Rosalie Ida Blun) from New York, NY.  The Straus's owned Macy's Department Store in New York City.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Straus lost their lives, Mrs. Straus choosing to remain with her husband on board.

Overall, it was a wonderful time and it was a great adventure.  I look forward to seeing Kansas again soon!

Taking Toto to Kansas
Trip in 2 weeks. I had to schedule it between my court duties and my humira injection (needs refrigeration).  Kind of in keeping with my journey, I guess.  First stop my girlfriend in West Virginia.  Looking forward to some girlie kind of fun!  Then off across the United States to bring my grandpuppy to his Mommy.
First I bought a car seat.  And a car harness that attaches to the seat belt.  Then we took practices around the block, then to Norwich.  This morning we drove for two hours.  I think we are good to go.